Busy being active...

Tennis is back on with a vengeance, I've been playing 3 or 4 times a week. Poor Chris has become a sport widow and doesn't he just love hearing about good/bad runs & splits and the miss hits and winning shots!!!

Monday nights is Ladies Doubles and I am in a team called the 'Hippos' but those other zoo animal named teams can smirk all they like we are on top of the ladder. I'm playing as a number 2 and our team is strong. The evenings have been beautiful, balmy and pleasant. The setting sun is a problem til about 8pm but after that there is no advantage on either end. Some of the older courts have bull ants on them, this keeps you on your toes, the coach is happy we are not standing flat footed!

Thursday nights the Mixed Double comp is played and last night was the first night they needed a fill in. We played in a thunderstorm watching the lightning around us. The storm skirted around the Marsh so we played on dodging the fat drops of rain. By the end of the first set we were soaked in a mixture of rain and sweat. The humid stormy weather did little to cool us off and we weren't deterred by the rain or the lightning. At one point I was trying to serve and had the setting sun and rain blinding me.

Friday mornings is Cardio Tennis, a mixture of a cardio workout with tennis drills. I am getting lots of pointers from the coach and I think it is really helping my game. Burning off 400 odd calories is a bonus. Down side to all this tennis is my forearm has started to ache and I really noticed the soreness when carrying the groceries. I will have to start wearing my tennis elbow strap again.

I told Chris I wouldn't play Saturday being the 4th time this week but they are short & need another player. Saturdays are a lot of fun, being very social. I am making new friends and enjoying the welcoming atmosphere.

Training for the Kids Run is coming along nicely but we struggle sometimes in this hot humid weather. Even when the  thundery clouds roll in in the afternoons, the temperature doesn't drop much and it takes a lot of effort. Wednesday night we  ran at the Melbourne Zoo at 715pm.

Running Buddy and I went into Melbourne to run in a twilight race. Not really a fun run as there were many runners there who were out for a PB time. Originally advertised as 8km around and through the Zoo, the course was shortened to 7.2km because of the Meerkat exhibit works. Buddy and I ran a great time for us. The course was hilly, shady and just beautiful.

We've learned that our Pharmacist is also a competitive runner and she met us at the start but then sprinted off on her long legs bettering our time by 9 minutes! We've been comparing Garmin times & encouraging each other with our training.

The selfies aren't getting any better, not like the running!

Hot report...

Normally when the weather is hot for days on end, like it has been this February, I hibernate in a cool place, draw the shades and only venture from one air conditioned place to the next. But I have been venturing out, running, playing tennis and the like. I am tolerating the heat much better this year, its not like me at all.
I have been furtively looking to the cloudy thundery skies for rain but it has been as dry as dry.

And yet I am calm.

Busy with life and exercising and working and not much blogging.

I was reminded today that 30 years ago on this day that a huge dust storm rolled over Melbourne on a 43 degree day.

I remember sitting up in a classroom on the third floor of the Alfred Hospital School of Nursing as a brand new nursing student, watching in horror & amazement as the dark cloud darkened the sky.

 

 

 

It was both amazing and frightening at the same time.

A week later the state was ravaged by the Ash Wednesday fires.

This reminder sparked the 'where were you when the dust storm hit' conversation. Chris remembers that he was working at RSA in Sth Melbourne on that afternoon.

Where were you? Do you remember that day?

So there it is, another anniversary. 30 years since I was one of these students embarking on a career in nursing. I wonder how many of group 1/83B are still nursing. I only know of 2 others from this snap for sure.

We certainly don't dress like this any more and all of us don't look like this either.

Run...

squeezed in a 10km run this afternoon & am trying to link this with the Garmin



and reminiscing over this photo